The last leg of our vacation began 
with a 7-hour trek with Amy’s folks down the Mass Pike to Rochester. Sam was our main source of entertainment, shunning even the mention of taking a nap, instead regaling us with songs and stories most of the way. Once in Rochester, we had a great time – heading down to Bristol to see Uncle Stan and Ruth as well as more Handelman cousins than I’ve ever seen in one location. Sam enjoyed his first time in a lake, and on this trip, the male cousins of Boston were replaced by girls, girls and more girls. Sam did not mind one bit. We also took in a game at Rochester’s Frontier Field, and despite anticipation that Giambi was going to appear in the course of his rehab before joining the bigs again, that didn’t happen. More photos can be found here.
Tag Archives: sam
Into Boston
We gathered the clan and headed into Boston 
on Friday of our vacation. Sam has been talking about meeting Mrs. Mallard and her ducklings for weeks now, those famous avian stars of Robert McCloskey’s Make Way for Ducklings. He was not dissapointed! We explored much of the Boston Public Garden, visited the bronze statue of Mrs. Mallard and Lack, Mack, Quack, etc., rode the ‘strange enormous birds’ (aka the Swan Boats) and swam in the Frog Pond – a great respite from the 90+ degree heat wave hitting the city. We also walked Newbury Street from the park all the way to Comm Ave – something I don’t think I’d done for almost 20 years. I’m not sure how I ever afforded shopping there back in the day. We met up with more extended family including Lauren and her husband David plus their kids, as well as Peggy and Mary who are now living in Sommerville. We capped off the day with some yummy ice cream at JP Licks, next door to the Newbury Comics, still going strong after all these years. More photos can be found here.
Mom’s 80th
Rita recently marked a significant milestone – her 80th birthday. The actual day was during the last week of June when I was in the midst of the CNN.com relaunch. We did manage to head down to Savannah to celebrate with a kiddush at my mom’s synagogue, Mickve Israel a few weeks back. The picture at right is by my brother Jerry, and catches us as we head into the kiddush. More photos are here.
Soul Train
A few weeks back we were in Savannah to visit Sam’s grandma, and the highlight of the trip for the little guy was the visit to the Roundhouse Railroad Museum. Only a few hundred yards from where my dad’s store Thrifty was located, this spot was always off-limites and behind tall fences when I was a kid. Abandoned from active use back in 1960s, I often picked blackberries in the adjacent fields as a kid, and recall vividly taking photos with my Canon AT-1 as the Ranger batallion from Hunter Army Airfield practiced urban combat in the abandoned buildings in the early 80s. Anyway, it’s now a wonderful museum of train history, with at least a dozen old engines and cars, including the restored switching engine pictured above. One of Sam’s favorite books these days is The Little Engine that Could (sam loves this version the most), so seeing the tiny (not blue) engine pull the much larger full-size steam locomotive was a highlight of the trip. The ash that covered us was an unexpected memento of the visit requiring a good shower afterward, but seeing the little engine belching steam was pretty darn cool. These demos take place twice a day on weekends and are well worth checking out. For more photos, see the full gallery here.
